Maine Is the First U.S. State to Center Survivors of Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Legal Reforms

Maine Is the First U.S. State to Center Survivors of Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Legal Reforms
8/9/2023 by Michelle Onello
The two new laws in Maine were inspired by the movement against domestic violence—aiming to center victims, hold abusers accountable and eliminate victim-blaming.



A new Maine law sponsored by state Rep. Lois Reckitt (pictured) and signed into law last month eliminates the crime of engaging in prostitution. (Whitney Hayward / Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)

Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed two laws last month empathetic toward people who engage in prostitution, while expanding criminalization for sex buyers and those who sexually exploit vulnerable populations, including children and people with mental disabilities. These laws make Maine the first U.S. state to adopt a survivor-centered model regarding the sex trade—also known as the Nordic or equality model, which represents a paradigm shift in efforts to reduce commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking, provide greater support for prostituted individuals and hold exploiters and sex buyers more accountable.

Maine state Rep. Lois Galgay Reckitt (D) sponsored the bills, An Act to Reduce Commercial Sexual Exploitation (LD 1435) and An Act to Provide Remedies for Survivors of Commercial Sexual Exploitation (LD 1436), using the domestic violence movement as inspiration to center victims, hold abusers accountable and eliminate victim-blaming. The laws recognize the link between prostitution, sex trafficking, violence and substance abuse, and the gender dimensions of prostitution, with women disproportionately arrested for prostitution, and men the overwhelming majority of sex buyers and rarely held accountable for the harm they perpetuate. Under the new laws, people engaging in prostitution will no longer be arrested, will receive increased services and can petition to have their previous arrests for prostitution sealed so that they are not discriminated against in other areas, such as housing and employment.
The laws employ a demand reduction strategy by only penalizing those who pay or attempt to pay for a sex act. They reframe prostitution as “commercial sexual exploitation,” or “providing, agreeing to provide or offering to provide a pecuniary benefit to another person to engage in a sexual act or sexual contact.”


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Critics of the approach used in Maine argue that it does not eliminate the factors which create exploitative conditions and the risk of violence and could prevent people engaged in prostitution from operating safely and independently—for example, by making customers reluctant to undergo screening measures and scaring away more desirable customers. They argue that only full decriminalization will ultimately reduce exploitation and violence. Advocates of the survivor-centered model used in Maine’s new laws, however, point to positive results in Sweden and other countries adopting the equality model, such as a reduction in prostitution and its associated harms, fewer sex buyers and shifts in cultural attitudes, and claim that full decriminalization increases harms—such as in Germany, where legalization has turned Germany into “Europe’s bordello,” with disastrous results for women.

Maine’s efforts to end trafficking and punish those who profit from commercial sexual exploitation will focus more attention on the issue and provide useful information and empirical data for other U.S. states considering similar laws. Ultimately, Maine’s experiment could prove that employing a demand reduction and survivor services strategy is the best strategy for supporting and providing better options for prostituted people in the United States.

https://msmagazine.com/2023/08/09/maine-prostitution-laws-women/